The folly and future of space real estate
The folly and future of space real estate
Can you really buy land on the moon?
As discussion of NASA’s policy direction heats up under property mogul and now US President-elect Donald Trump, some pundits ask if real estate’s next frontier will be extraterrestrial in nature.
“I will free NASA from the restriction of serving primarily as a logistics agency for low-earth orbit activity,” Trump said at a Florida rally in October. Yet the giant leap he has taken for humankind so far is an intention to dismantle NASA’s climate research program.
There’s currently a Jupiter-sized blockade on transacting out-of-this-world real estate: the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Around 104 countries are bound to this treaty, which deems outer space, i.e. the moon and other celestial bodies, as “not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty.”
Men have certainly laid claim to the moon for centuries, but several have been so bold as to peddle lunar land deeds online, Fusion pointed out.
More: New luxury landmark in Hangzhou is inspired by the moon
Lunar Embassy sells most of these moon plots, handled by “premier authorized agents.” Founder Dennis Hope has claimed ownership of not only the moon, but also Mars, Mercury, Venus, and Io since the 1980s.
A newer entrant into intergalactic real estate, Luna Society International, dismisses Hope’s claims but goes on to offer “a realistic program for the eventual settlement and development” of moon parcels brokered through them.
Moon land titles do not hold any more weight on earth than paper in space. But as the digital age continues to inch forward with advances in interplanetary travel, the need for a clear-cut international law adapted to the times has turned pressing.
“In 1967 it was not envisaged that anyone other than nation states would be able to explore the moon,” planetary science professor Ian Crawford told the BBC. “That is changing now and there is a case for developing the Outer Space Treaty to include private organisations that may wish to exploit the moon.”
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Source: Property Report